Impact of flood on grocery prices expected to hit stores November/December
By newtondak
@newtondak (3946)
United States
June 23, 2008 1:55pm CST
Just in time for Thanksgiving and Christmas - "experts" are anticipating that the impact of the flooding in the midwest will hit the prices in our grocery stores just in time for the holidays.
What, if any, adjustments do you anticipate making in your buying habits in light of the ever increasing food prices?
1 response
@jonesy123 (3948)
• United States
23 Jun 08
The harvests mostly affected are corn and soy, as well as some wheat. Corn is already high due to the biofuel production. But all corn and soy based products will be more expensive in the fall/winter/spring. Similary, meat prices will go up as the corn as feed is gone. But even worse, some dairy farms were effected, too. And cows drawned. Milk and dairy products will go up, too.
Adjustments. Boy, I don't know how much more I can adjust. My husbands would love to eat meat each dinner. I already cut it down to three nights a week and he is not a happy camper. I only buy meat on sale and try to buy as much as I can of the sales items at that point.
I guess we have to cut down even more. Eating out is pretty much out of the question. I make more meals from scratch and try to serve soup or salad as appetizer just to act as fillers.
Depending on how high the prices will climb it will be a low key Christmas with probably no presents for us and only a few for the kids. Nothing big ticket for a long time.
1 person likes this
@newtondak (3946)
• United States
24 Jun 08
I find it interesting that even though corn market prices are up and corn futures are even higher, market prices for feeder cattle are down.
What many who are not associated with the industry do not know, is that most cattle producers, including dairy producers, feed little actual corn to their animals. Byproducts of ethanol production, in the form of corn gluten is readily available at a reasonable cost to farmers to use as feed. Byproducts from the processing of wheat, soybeans, cotton, peanuts and even sugar beets are used as feed sources. Even the corn stalk is cut and baled after the corn itself is harvested, and later fed and/or used for bedding for cattle. Wheat straw left after the wheat is harvested is also used for feed and/or bedding.
While the cost of production for beef and dairy products is ever increasing, the majority of the increase that the consumer pays does not revert back to the farmer.
I'm thinking that it would be a good measure to stock my kitchen and pantry very well in the next few months, and perhaps do a lot of early Christmas shopping - at least as much as the bank account allows!
